Libertarianism 101: What's the libertarian position on social issues?

In 300 words or less...

Dear Fellow Libertarians,

I received an email from a disillusioned Democrat who's attracted to libertarianism. Naturally, she has a multitude of questions, so I'd like to point her toward some online resources that specifically aid recovering Democrats rather than ones designed to wean people from their Republican addictions.

She asks, for example, how libertarians would handle "the good things government can do for us" such as "Fire departments, public libraries, a postal service, and public schools" so you see what I'm up against here.

She needs to learn how everything is tied together. For example, if 95% of what government does today is unconstitutional, forcing the pit bull of government back into the kennel of the Constitution should result in everyone keeping 95% of what they earn. Then we can ask her to think about how all of us voluntarily working together through private welfare associations and fraternal organizations and mutual-aid societies and for-profit and not-for-profit institutions could achieve great things like they did in the nineteenth century before government-connected weasels politicized everything and drove them out of existence.

Then we could talk about the huge successes of charity hospitals and philanthropy-based orphanages and private schools and membership-supported retirement homes before propagandist ideologues like Charles Dickens and Horace Mann and their authoritarian ilk paved the way for politicizing these institutions too.

There are many places a person concerned with left libertarian issues can begin, like maybe discovering: Who's to blame for increasing poverty?

And there's a box on the far right side of every Dallas Libertarian Examiner page called Libertarian Websites that lists 30 opportunities for libertarian enlightenment.

But since freedom is inexorably intertwined with responsibility, my email writer will ultimately have to pursue her own answers to her questions.

As have we all.